The Appearing

source: The Appearing

I take no pleasure in brandishing a movie from my beloved genre as "awful" but this one, sadly, deserves the moniker. The one positive was the quality of camera work and that it was easy on the eye. That was the only positive to take away from the whole experience, which proved to be a complete waste of time. The movie started off on a low note with a terrible scene of a group of "high school seniors" hanging out and drinking in the woods. The scenery was really nice but the fact is that the aforementioned kids, who I imagine were supposed to be 18, looked far too old for their roles. The girl that ends up being killed looked like she should be their mother, and there was another eye-rollingly bad casting job as well where one of the group looked closer to 40 than to 20. The group was far too quick to consider the possibility that the house was haunted and should have been more sceptical. The scene put an immediate bad taste in my mouth and set the tone for the rest of the movie with poor and unimaginative dialogue. Going back to the camera work, which was good, the way they pieced together the leading woman's "visions" did not work at all. They all happened so quickly and haphazardly that it ended up looking poor. The acting, bar none, was very poor. Will Wallace is probably the best of a bad bunch, but he himself didn't cover himself in any glory. The script was unquestionably the main offender. They could have got away with below-par acting because the visuals were good, but the script was overly cheesy and lacked imagination. Don't get me wrong - cheesy is good as long as its presented in a believable way - but the acting and the script made for a hugely shoddy movie. The last specific I will touch on is the stab scene late on in the movie. I had to revisit that scene to try and wrap my head around what happened or if I had missed something. In one scene, Rachel is brutally stabbing Sheriff Hendricks who is presumed dead. A couple of scenes later he then reappears with his arm in a sling - a fortunate let- off for what appeared to be a brutal attack. I could go on and on but I really don't want to because I'm not a negative person, I love the genre and I know that a lot of people put effort into the movie. Without paying any attention to reviews I took the film on its merits, which I don't regret doing because 95% of horror reviews are biased, and would have been willing to look past a number of flaws but there was simply too many. The movie ended up being a big waste of time and for that I do not recommend people watch this unless they have exhausted all other options and want something new to try, but even then I would suggest to not get your hopes up or take it too seriously.

This film is a little better than so-so. I debated rating it either a 6 or a 7, but decided on a 6 because of some camera work and editing choices. The acting is better than average. Swayze and Wallace are really pretty solid (arguably Swayze's best performance since I thought in the past that his brother was a much better actor). A few of the other actors could have done more with the characters, though….particularly the guy from "The Blind Side" (Quinton Aaron). I thought he did a great job in that film, but this one….not so much. Fun to see Dean Cain because he is such a cool dude, but his acting is always a little sub par. No exception to that in this film. Some of the edits seem a little amateur as did some of the camera work. Overall, I enjoyed it once over some good popcorn, but wouldn't watch it a second time.

Despite the intriguing title, THE APPEARING is nothing more than a cheap and lousy horror movie that screams derivative at every step. It starts out as a tragedy-from-the-past type movie, and before the end has turned into your usual demonic possession flick. At no point is it original or indeed valid as a decent horror film. The characters are dull beyond with Will Wallace's lead being particularly stultifying. Former Superman actor Dean Cain shows up in support, while poor old Don Swayze - the late Patrick's brother - reminds us that he's nothing like his more famous sibling. Despite attempts by the filmmakers, the incidents portrayed in the film are rather tame, and the familiarity of the whole thing makes it tough to keep your attention on it.

One of the worst movies I have ever had displeasure to watch. The plot must have been written by someone under influence. Acting was anything but convincing. Characters were 1-dimensional. Even music sucked. Not worth watching at all. At first, I thought it was a parody perhaps but it wasn't. It was just "work" of a bunch of people who obviously had no idea what they were doing and decided one fine day to make this very poor excuse for a horror movie. What the whole movie reminded me the most of are the worst of the SyFy channel productions. Although those movies tend to have better costumes, decorations and special effects than this one. So... do not watch this at home or anywhere else. It's definitely not worth your time. You can recommend it to someone you really don't like, though.

I'm a big fan of Horror dealing with haunting and exorcisms. The Appearing seemed like an average film from these sub-genres, but it definitely isn't, for better and for worse. After watching this, I've realized I'd find it easier if I tried hard enough to focus on the good things... First of all, I was very happy seeing Dean Cain doing cinema! I really liked him in Lois and Clarke back in the day, and last time I've seen anything by him was his average role in Circle of Pain. So... Nice seeing you Dean! Second, I absolutely loved the new interpretation of possession behaviour. It of course had some of the motives we've grown accustomed to from pretty much every exorcism film since The Exorcist, but it was mostly quite innovative in its own way. Less extreme over-acting, more mellow and tasteful insanity originating from something unknown. Speaking of insanity, the film did try to combine that factor in order to present some twists, but these were sadly not that impressive. Finally, the best feature of this film is without a doubt newbie actress Emily Brooks. I have no idea why Dean Cain, who has 10% the camera time she has, appears as a main actor while she doesn't. She has performed almost perfectly both as a delusional woman and as a possessed one. I loved every minute of her, and sincerely hope to see her again in the Horror genre! Also, along with her acting, main actor Will Wallace (Braveheart, anyone?) whom I've never seen before demonstrated some exceptional, professional and wonderful acting. Now for the rest... the plot was vague, unclear and needed better writing and editing (script lacked in particular). The acting by the rest of the cast was bluntly unimpressive. The way Exorcism films insist on staying fixed on Christianity is old and annoying and we were already tired with it a decade ago (please, I mean absolutely no disrespect towards Christians or Christianity, I'm simply saying demon possession and exorcisms can and should be additionally examined from one of the other angles available to writers and directors). In order to enjoy this film you really have to focus on the aforementioned light spots, and most viewers and raters aren't really going to. And I completely understand them. Would I recommend this film? Only to a fellow devout Horror fan who would appreciate the good parts enough so as not to smack me across the head for making them tolerate the rest. As for others looking for a fun scary film? Nope, sorry. This film deserves a 2, but I'm mercifully rating 5 because the smart possession scenes and Wallace and Brooks' acting are easily worth 3 points in my opinion.

Dean Cain's not a bad actor but compared to the rest of these clowns, he's due an Academy Award. Patrick Swayze got all the looks and talent in that family if his brother's performance is any indication and Will Wallace was horrible... just horrible. Wallace had two expressions throughout the entire thing: "I want to kill myself" and "I want to kill somebody other than myself." The "acting" was completely over the top and everybody in it had the personality of a psychopath. I'm avoiding spoilers, but if you can make it a half hour into this thing, you'll have seen all you need to see to know it's a waste of your time. Oddly enough, each and every "10 star" rater of this movie has rated exactly one movie: this one. That says it all.

This movie was your typical horror movie but worse. Let's start off with the actors who were chosen for this movie. Are we to accept these people are actually high school students? Next, let's talk about the music. Music is important to a movie. At times, the music made the dialogue hard to hear. The scene at the hospital was just strange. If someone is out of it like that, they don't haul them off to the police. I know I am over- analyzing things but sheesh don't directors want people to buy into a movie? Why was the hospital so yellowish-green? The wife in the movie goes from having normal looking eyes to eyes that have dark circles and back again. Why would that be? As one progresses into possession, I thought you would deteriorate. Guess I have seen to many possessed people.

That's what I felt when watching this. I was basically watching every other lame ghost story there has ever been put to celluloid. A detective and his wife try and start a new life in a small town, (why is it always a small town?), to get over the tragic loss of their child. There's no time to settle in as the new detective becomes involved in a missing persons case. It all seems to be about a powerful demon that is running rampant through the town and also the fact that his wife used to be a victim of possession, however this just leaves her vulnerable to further possessions by one of the princes of hell known as Asmodeus. There are old houses, dead languages being spoken, words written in blood, spooky recordings and every other ghost movie cliché you can shake a stick at in The Appearing. If all this sounds somewhat exciting, it isn't. I found this to just plod along from one seemingly spooky bit to the other without much story in between. Even the finale of the detective, sheriff and the obligatory fallen, yet not completely fallen priest helping to exorcise the demon was boring. It was obvious to me that they just tried way too hard to make this a masterpiece of cinematography, which it isn't. It appears that seeing Dean Cain in a cast list is another reason to avoid a movie at all costs. As for other reviews on this title, I didn't find the movie racist in any way due to the lack of black women. For that matter there were no Asian or Hispanic women in the movie either from what I could see, but whether or not that makes a movie racist remains to be seen. The Appearing is just a boring, colour by numbers movie that didn't need to be made. Having a more multi-racial cast would not have made much of a difference to just how awful this movie is.

There's something to be said about how bad a film is, when the first ten minutes pass and you're wondering more about how it got made than the plot itself. The acting is bizarre. It reminds me of drama classes in high school, where a prompt to "look happy" means smiling maniacally whilst staring at a single point in the distance like a crazy person. Or the instruction to be the "stoner chick" ends up like the only knowledge the actress has of drugs is a "Just Say No!" education commercial. An early scene sets the tone. A curious girl and some guy (...boyfriend? I honestly have no idea) wander into an abandoned, haunted house. The script has the girl stating at least 5 times how weird the place is, even though it actually doesn't resemble anything other than an old house with cobwebs. Seriously, it's not even dark in there. Then we're introduced to a couple who have moved to the area following a "tragic event". Fair enough, but when we see the wife in the bathroom looking upset, music suddenly roars into life, completely obliterating the mood. Is it background music? Is it a CD the wife put on? Where the hell did it come from? And WHY IS IT SO LOUD?! Still, I'm only fourteen minutes in. The next scene shows the wife making breakfast and the husband doing his best not to act in any kind of realistic way, by stating that he can't share breakfast as he's late for work, but then weirdly taking absolutely ages to drink a glass of OJ and take two bites of toast. Sad wife (I think, she's got that weird look in her eyes again - and not because of her acting) looks at a photo of her daughter (ah, so that's the tragic event) and then runs out of the house, and then just appears in the middle of a country road with photo in hand. But this isn't lost time, or a fugue state. She's just...walking there. I've got another hour and a quarter of this. Can't wait.